Reviewed by: Marylee Crofts Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: This young adult novel is riveted with suspense and fear, providing the reader with a realistic view of the danger and unpredictability of life in urban South Africa during the period of school boycotts and armed conflict, in the mid 1970s. The main character is […]
Caminar
Reviewed by: Cindy L. Rodriguez Review Source: Latinxs in Kid Lit Book Author: Skila Brown’s debut novel in verse tells the heartbreaking story of Carlos, who is forced from his devastated village and treks up a mountainside to save his grandmother and her neighbors from a similar fate. One thing that struck me most was Brown’s […]
Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal
Reviewed by: Deborah Menkart Reviewed Source: Zinn Education Project Book Author: Using her trademark style—multiple voices in free verse to share untold historical events —Margarita Engle introduces young readers to the builders of the Panama Canal. The protagonist is Mateo, a young boy from the Caribbean, lured with promises of good pay and work. Instead, […]
The Peace Tree from Hiroshima: The Little Bonsai with a Big Story
Reviewed by Maria Brescia-Weiler Review Source: Teaching for Change Book Author: The Peace Tree from Hiroshima is narrated by the titular tree, a nearly four hundred year old bonsai that now resides in the National Arboretum. Throughout its long lifetime, the tree is passed down from generation to generation, and it witnesses many important events […]
The Bitter Side of Sweet
Reviewed By Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Review Source: Africa Access Book Author: This is an engaging novel told from the perspective of Amadou, a child worker whom along with other boys work on a cocoa farm far away from home. The conditions under which they work are deplorable but they had come to accept their fate as impoverished […]
Chains
Reviewed by Kirkus Reviews Review Source: Kirkus Reviews Book Author: “‘Freedom and liberty’ has many meanings,” but enslaved Isabel knows that while Loyalists and Patriots battle for their own versions of freedom, she is “chained between two nations” that uphold slavery. She wonders, “If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl?” […]